Abstract [en]

Suicide is today, according to the World Health Organization, one of the 20 leading causes of death and it is well known that the risk of suicide increases in depression. Daily, psychiatric Nurses face patients where they are required to assess the degree of risk that the patient commits suicide. So far there has been little research on how psychiatric nurses experience these assessments and the purpose of the study was to describe psychiatric nurses' experiences of suicide risk assessment in patients with depressive ill health. The study design was qualitative in nature where interviews were conducted with 10 psychiatric nurses in general psychiatric outpatients. Data were analyzed with the support of qualitative content analysis and resulted in four main categories with related subcategories . Category one was to create a holistic view which psychiatric nurses did by gathering knowledge from different sources such as theoretical- and factual knowledge, previous assessments , intuition , clinical eyes and different types of instruments as support. Category two was about the relationship's importance. To create and maintain a relationship where psychiatric nurses explored through talks and established a safe relationship with the patient. The third category described how it is to have the responsibility for someone else's life. The informants described how it feels to be responsible for assessments, the support they receive from others such as coworkers and what to do to protect them selves. The fourth, and last, category described how to handle the time and focused on professional development and the possibility to be there for the patient. It was concluded that suicide risk assessment of depressed patients is complex and influenced by a variety of factors which nurses need support to manage.